Historic Cryptid Headline: August 4, 1891

Capt. Edward Reeve has the contract to light the beacon on the breakwater every night, says a Greenport correspondent of the New York World. He is an industrious and reliable man, not looked upon as one likely to see visions or deal in blood-curdling sea yarns.

Every day as the sun is sinking he rows in a little skiff to the breakwater and, after lighting the beacon, pulls back up the bay. In the morning he rows down the bay, puts out the light, and cleans and fills in preparation for the night.

The other morning, the captain says, while pulling leisurely toward the breakwater, he was attracted by a commotion in the water near him. He rested on his oars and looked to see what it was. He saw what looked like the hard shell back of a monster turtle. A moment later he saw the head and eyes of the strange object. As the head protruded above the surface the water was churned into foam by the flapping of what appeared to be long flippers. The head of the marine animal, the captain says, was covered with protruding horns.

The monster came toward the boat and apparently mediated an attack, when the captain hit it with an oar. It paid no attention to this assault, but ran its head against the boat with a force that caused the skiff to keel over. The captain weighs over two hundred pounds, and managed to keep the boat right side up. Then the fight became fierce. The tide was carrying the contestants toward the breakwater. One after the other the oars were broken by the captain by striking on the hard back of the monster. Finally, without anything to defend himself, the captain managed to throw a noose over a projecting rock on the breakwater, and so pulled himself a shore.

The monster continued its attacks on the boat and remained in the vicinity for some time after the boat had been drawn up out of the way. When last seen the ferocious marine monster was churning the water into foam as it sped off toward Gardiner’s island. The captain puts the monster down as a sea turtle, but of enormous size.

“Historic Cryptid Headlines” showcases actual articles involving cryptids that were published within United States newspapers back in the 1800’s-1900’s. The articles posted here are written exactly as they appeared during their original publishing date.